Forgive the diversion of talking regional politics, but there is a lesson to be learned from the MBTA’s desperate money situation and their threat to make a massive cut in service.
A speaker protests proposed service cuts and fare increases at an MBTA public meeting
The T doesn’t have enough money, so it either needs to reduce its spending, raise its revenue, or both. The problem is so bad, they have put two awful proposals on the table that would indeed do both in a big way. Shown at left is a photo from one (in Newton) of 20 planned public meetings. This meeting is so full you can see people overflowing onto the balcony over the speaker’s shoulder.
The T’s service cuts call for an end to weekend commuter rail service, all ferry service, and many less-used bus routes.
Since you live in Billerica, you probably rarely use the T. We have no T bus service (we are served by the Lowell Regional Transit Authority in that regard), although we do have a commuter rail station. Chances are that you drive to work, so whichever plan the T goes with, it won’t affect you, right?
I suppose, except when you consider that the T carries 1.3 million people a day. And if service is cut, where do you suppose those displaced people will end up? You got it: on Route 3, in front of you.
But that’s not the point of today’s post. No, I’m speaking up on this because while I support public transit in general, the T is playing a dirty trick on its customers and taxpayers. I believe the T will withdraw both current proposals and go with a third, which will make much more modest service cuts and fare increases. And I also believe this was the MBTA’s plan all along, before they even walked into the first public meeting.
If I am right, the T will not be the first government agency to pull this trick. Towns do it with overrides all the time. The plan goes like this:
- In the upcoming fiscal year, costs cannot be covered with anticipated revenue and/or regular-sized budget cuts.
- Pick a bread-and-butter service or other service that taxpayers are emotionally tied to (e.g. teacher positions, firemen, police, library) and write a budget that slashes it.
- Announce your plan.
- Give constituents plenty of time, space, and opportunity to unite, assemble, and express anger.
- Plenty of media coverage follows, gaining the sympathy of observers.
- Ask for more money.
- Panicked constituents fork over the cash, averting disaster.
In the case of towns, #7 is usually an override. (How many overrides have you seen that saves the library from losing accreditation?) For the T, there is an extra step — the angry constituents turn to their state reps and senators, demanding that Beacon Hill come up with the money.
The MBTA is at step #4 of this insidious plan. They are holding twenty public meetings. Why so many? To build a large, motivated horde of activists that will go to bat for the agency’s interests in the political arena. They could have had three public meetings in the middle of the day when everyone is at work if they wanted to.
The anger of the speakers at these meeting is directed squarely at the T, but it needs that anger. All the T has to do is shrug its shoulders and say, “We have no choice. We don’t have the money. But if we did have the money…”
The T can’t ask for more money, but their riders sure can.
Is it underhanded? Devious? Manipulative? Yes, yes, and yes.
But do I blame the T for doing it? No. Because the only way to raise revenues in our political environment is with fear. Rather than have an adult conversation about matching taxes, fees, fares, and other costs to the services we want, there is no alternative.
Put another way, talking about raising taxes will get you stoned in this recession. (I am hiding behind a stack of old volumes of the World Book Encyclopedias right now.) So what if the state gas tax hasn’t been touched since 1991? Can’t go near it. MBTA fares haven’t changed since 2007? Keep your damn hands off.
We Americans are becoming allergic to paying our own way. Someone else should pay. We pay enough already. Can’t afford a penny more.
That’s a child’s fantasy. Here is the reality: costs of anything go up. Forever. They call it inflation. The only question is how fast costs go up and by how much. So you are left with one of the following 3 options:
- Pay enough to cover inflation, get the same services
- Pay more than enough to cover inflation, get more services
- Don’t pay enough to cover inflation, get less services
But wait, where is option 4, “Pay less and get more services?” We believe in option 4 because people running for elected office have been telling us for years that it exists, like Atlantis or the Tooth Fairy. Just cut “wasteful spending,” they say, which itself is imaginary.
Folks, we are grown-ups, not children playing “store.” Real money, real debt, real needs, real choices.
